The Comparative Impact of Focus on Forms vs. Focus on Form Instructions on the Receptive Skills of Reading and Listening: An Experimental Study of Iraqi Intermediate EFL Learners

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of the two forms of instruction, namely, FonF and Fonfs on developing listening and reading abilities and skills of Iraqi intermediate EFL learners. The research is by nature a two dimensional study which covers both a macro study on teaching professionalism and micro study of learning development. Before starting the treatment, in order to test the homogeneousness of the students, a PET was piloted among 80 students being at the same language proficiency level of the main participants of this study and showed high reliability and validity indices. Subsequently, the listening and reading sections of IELTS test were administered to the selected participants of the study and then they were divided into three experimental and control groups receiving the treatments in one term of six weeks. The experimental groups were taught through the FonF and Fonfs teaching strategies and the conventional group enjoyed the routine classroom schedule and syllabus. The researchers employed independent samples t test and the results indicated significant difference among the mean rank of the experimental and control groups on the listening post-test (p = 0.049<0.05). Moreover, she used ANOVA and univariate analyses were used and the results indicated that there was a significant difference among the mean rank of the experimental groups on the use of FonF and Fonfs post-test. Therefore, the multiple comparisons exposed that teaching FonF was basically more operational for exercising reading skills and tasks in an EFL classroom than teaching Fonfs for developing listening skills. All in all, teaching either FonF or Fonfs can be to the benefit of Iranian EFL learners since the differences between the numerical values obtained have not been greatly different to reject the treatment effects of Fonfs.